WCS 2014: Partial Region Lock, GSL returns, and more

World Championship Series 2014

After an exciting and successful global finals at BlizzCon, the 2013 StarCraft II World Championship Series has come to a close. All of our partners, including GomTV, OGN, NASL, ESL, MLG, and Twitch, did a remarkable job in producing WCS and bringing StarCraft II eSports to a global audience. We're now ready to share details on what's happening in 2014.

We've been in constant talks with our partners and key figures in the eSports community to level up WCS for 2014. Together we've come up with some changes that we hope will improve WCS and continue to build toward a self-sustaining StarCraft II eSports ecosystem.

In 2014, StarCraft II WCS will remain a three-season event operated from three primary regions -- America, Europe, and Korea -- broadcasting matches in primetime from each region over Twitch. The global ranking system for players will remain as the glue tying together all the league competition as well as partner events. And there will be a total $1.6 million prize pool with a final year-end global finals for the top-ranked players.

Linear, Easy to Understand Schedule

In order to fit three seasons within a compressed timeline last year, it was necessary for Challenger League and Premier League to overlap. This structure was difficult to follow at times, and Challenger League was also overly complex.

New WCS League Format

Click to Enlarge

In 2014, WCS will feature a much simpler system. In America and Europe, the bottom 16 players from the previous season’s Premier will be waiting in Challenger. Qualifier tournaments will be played to identify 16 players to challenge the former Premier players. Challenger will then take place, consisting of 16 best-of-five up-and-down matches between a qualifier and a Premier League dropout to identify the next Premier League players.

This system provides a number of benefits. Qualifiers, Challenger, and Premier league can now be run in sequence. It's easier to understand, and with fewer Challenger matches to play, there's more importance placed on each match. And since the schedule doesn't overlap, players are now free to transfer between regions between seasons.

Timing and Broadcasts

We expect seasons to last around 10 weeks, with an emphasis on broadcasting Premier League play in each region. Challenger and Qualifier play may be broadcasted via community channels or directly by the partner, at the discretion of NASL and ESL. We expect Premier League to broadcast 2 days per week, with a span of about 6 weeks separating each season of Premier League. With so much more open space in the broadcast schedule, we hope to allow much more breathing room for third-parties to broadcast tournaments without fear of overlapping WCS. More details on the 2014 WCS schedule will come next month.

Season 1 - Transition

Also note that as part of the transition from 2013, Season 1 Challenger of America and Europe will have a total of 48 players. The 24 players from each respective Season 3 2013 Challenger League will be taking on 24 new players from Season 1 Qualifiers. The top 24 players who win their Challenger match will join the 8 exisiting players in order to fill out a full 32 player Premier League roster in each region. In subsequent seasons, the system will revert to the bottom 16 players of Premier taking on a fresh set of 16 qualifiers in Challenger up-and-downs.

Korea will work slightly differently, which brings us to the next point -

GSL is Back!

In 2013, we set up 3 uniform leagues across 3 global regions that mirrored each other in branding, prize money, rules, and other areas. As we move into 2014, we recognize that Korea needs to operate a little differently. In the GSL, Korea already had an established league, with the best StarCraft II players in the world. GSL was the model for other WCS regions. Going forward, GomTV will be the sole partner for StarCraft II WCS in Korea, and it will operate the region using the GSL name, as well as its classic league designations: Code S (Premier League), Code A (Challenger), and Qualifiers.

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GSL will also feature higher prize pools in each season to reflect the added challenge of competing in the region. Aside from differences in naming and prize money, GSL will continue to have 24 players fall out of Code S each season to take on 24 new qualifiers in Code A in each season. This differs from WCS America and Europe having 16 players fall out of Premier and down to Challenger per season. Code A competition will feature group stages, which is different from the basic up-and-down matches that America and Europe will operate. These differences represent regional preferences communicated to us by GSL.

OGN has been a dedicated partner for WCS Korea 2013. In addition to hosting a season of WCS Korea and a Season Final, OGN also broadcasted the WCS Global Finals live from BlizzCon on November 8-9. With the goal to provide a more streamlined experience for both the players and the audience, OGN will not be hosting WCS Korea 2014. OGN has rights to run both StarCraft and StarCraft II tournaments alongside WCS and will be able to run WCS global events that offer WCS points. Additionally, OGN will remain our partner outside of the WCS and will produce entertainment shows and tournaments for Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft.

More Opportunities Reserved for Local Players

We purposefully made the WCS an open system last year. While our intention was to have a sprinkling of players venture into other regions, we failed to anticipate the high volume of international players competing outside their home regions. Going into 2014, we're making an adjustment that affects qualifier slots into WCS America and Europe. Korea remains unaffected because the GSL system is and has always been a completely open for anyone who can attend the live qualifier.

Qualifier Breakdown

WCS America

# of slots

Season 1 Exception

USA/Canada/Latin America

8

12

China

2

3

Oceania/Southeast Asia

2

3

Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macau

2

3

Ladder Wildcard

2

3

WCS Europe

# of slots

Season 1 Exception

Europe/Africa/Middle East

12

18

Ladder Wildcard

4

6

In 2014, we will reserve most qualifier slots for citizens and legal residents of the home regions for both WCS America and WCS Europe. Since America has become the home WCS region for players from countries such as China, Australia, and Taiwan, we will reserve qualifier spots for players from those specific regions as well as the Americas. Ladder wildcard spots will have open enrollment with no citizenship or residency restriction, but still have a master's level requirement with a minimum number of ladder wins within that regional server. Master's level will also be required across all qualifiers. The Qualifiers for Season 1 WCS 2014 will take place in January -- look for details about these in December.

By reserving the bulk of qualifier spots for players from the home region, we hope to increase opportunities for local players, while a few wildcard slots still keep opportunities open for players of other regions to participate.

WCS Global Events

Criteria

Requirements

Map Pool

WCS Season Maps (same as ladder)

Number of Players

16+

Global Qualifiers

At least 25% of the top 16 spots must be attainable by global entrants

Format

Matches must be at least Best-of-3 in Top 16

Points

WCS points can only be awarded after advancing at least one round

Player Rights

Conform to the WCS Player Bill of Rights and Responsibilties

Branding

WCS and StarCraft II branding

Total WCS Points

7000

4000

1800

1st place points

1500

750

300

Prize pool minimum

$75,000

$25,000

$10,000

# of players on-site

8+

8+

4+

Global Stream/Broadcasting

Free 720p in English

Free 720p in English

Free 480p in Local Language

On-Site Casters

Required

Required

Optional

Player Booths

Booths required

Sound Dampening

Sound Dampening

Live Audience

Required

Required

Optional

The WCS partner events were successful last year at tying in tournaments outside the WCS league structure into the overall WCS umbrella. By creating three different types of partner tournaments, we hope to have an expanded number of these partner events in 2014 and give players more opportunities to compete and gain WCS points outside of league play. We're also aiming to have a more even geographic distribution of partner events in 2014.

Become a WCS Partner

If you're interested in setting up a partner tournament that feeds into the WCS ranking system, please contact us at sc-tourneyinfo@Blizzard.com. **Note that meeting the requirements listed above does not automatically grant you partner status -- we'd like to work with you directly to ensure your event fits well into the schedule and doesn't overlap other partner events.

More Emphasis on Regional League Play

In 2013 we set up a system where the top finishers in each region met in a global season final for more prize money and more WCS ranking points. While these events were exciting and impactful, it took away some luster from the accomplishment of winning a region, and created a situation where top finishers from the region who made a global final and performed well for a weekend were able to quickly pull ahead in rankings and prize money. In 2014, we will no longer hold global season finals events.

Code S Point Distribution

GSL Code S(Korea)

Points Awarded(2014)

Points Awarded(2013)

1st

2000

1500

2nd

1000

1000

3rd-4th

750

750

5th-8th

500

500

9th-12th

300

300

13th-16th

200

200

17th-24th

150

150

25th-32nd

100

100

GSL Code A(Korea)

Points Awarded(2014)

1st-24th

Advance to Code S

24th-48th

50

WCS America & Europe Point Distribution

WCS AM/EU Premier

Points Awarded(2014)

Points Awarded(2013)

1st

2000

1500

2nd

1000

1000

3rd-4th

750

750

5th-8th

500

500

9th-12th

300

300

13th-16th

200

200

17th-24th

150

150

25th-32nd

100

100

WCS AM/EU Challenger

Points Awarded(2014)

1st-16th

Advance to Premier

17th-32nd

50

WCS Global Events Point Distribution

WCS Global Event7000 Points

Points Awarded

1st

1500

2nd

800

3rd-4th

550

5th-8th

400

9th-16th*

250

WCS Global Event4000 Points

Points Awarded

1st

750

2nd

500

3rd-4th

375

5th-8th

250

9th-16th*

125

WCS Global Event1800 Points

Points Awarded

1st

300

2nd

200

3rd-4th

150

5th-8th

100

9th-16th*

75

* Points will only be awarded to players that have advanced at least one round. If there are not enough players in the event to satisfy this requirement for all top 16 players, not all points will be awarded.

We also hope to have additional partner events in 2014 to give players more opportunities to gain points in the WCS ranking system.

Code S Prize Distribution

GSL Code S(Korea)

Prize Money(2014)

Prize Money(2013)

1st

70,000,000 KRW

$20,000

2nd

15,000,000 KRW

$12,000

3rd-4th

8,000,000 KRW

$7,000

5th-8th

4,000,000 KRW

$3,500

9th-16th

2,400,000 KRW

$2,000

17th-32nd

1,500,000 KRW

$1,500

Total

160,200,000 KRW

$100,000

GSL Code A(Korea)

Prize Money(2014)

1st-24th

Advance to Code S

24th-48th

700,000 KRW

WCS America & Europe Prize Distribution

WCS AM/EU Premier

Prize Money(2014)

Prize Money(2013)

1st

$25,000

$20,000

2nd

$15,000

$12,000

3rd-4th

$7,500

$7,000

5th-8th

$5,000

$3,500

9th-16th

$3,000

$2,000

17th-32nd

$2,000

$1,500

Total

$131,000

$100,000

WCS AM/EU Challenger*

Prize Money(2014)

1st-16th

Advance to Code S

17th-32nd

$600

*Season 1 exception: There will be 48 Challenger players in WCS America and WCS Europe Season 1. The top 24 players will advance to premier and the bottom 24 will earn $600.

WCS Global Finals

WCSGlobal Finals

Prize Money(2014)

Prize Money(2013)

1st

$100,000

$100,000

2nd

$50,000

$45,000

3rd-4th

$15,000

$17,500

5th-8th

$7,500

$7,500

9th-16th

$5,000

$5,000

Total

$250,000

$250,000

Prize Pool

We've also redistributed much of the prize money that would have gone into the Season Finals back into regional finals events to reflect their added importance. GSL features a more top-heavy distribution to reflect Korea's regional preference, while America and Europe have a more even distribution of prize money between top and bottom. Additionally, cash prizes are now being made available to those who compete in Challenger.

Summing it Up

In summary, the 2014 WCS will feature:

A linear, easier to understand schedule that allows more room for third-party tournaments

The return of GSL, with more prize money funneled into the Korea region

A partial region lock, where the bulk of qualifier spots are reserved for players from the home region

More WCS Global Events with partner tournaments , for additional competition and opportunities for players

More emphasis on regional play, with additional points and prize money for Premier League players compared to 2013

We also hope to maintain the strengths of what made WCS in 2013 so compelling to watch throughout the year. The global ranking system was a great addition to the ecosystem that helped tie all major competition together. We'll continue to broadcast top-level StarCraft II eSports in primetime across America, Europe, and Korea. And the entire system will climax at an exciting year-end global final featuring the world's very best players.

More details can be found in our FAQ, and in December we expect to announce the full schedule for 2014, as well as details about the first qualifier events for 2014 which will take place in January.

World Championship Series 2014 Q & A

Q: What are the changes you've made to WCS 2014 and how do they improve the system?

A more linear scheduleIn 2014, WCS will feature a more linear schedule and simple structure that's easier to understand and should allow more open space in the calendar for StarCraft II eSports competition that lies outside of regular WCS league play

Partial region lockIn response to feedback, we've set up a system where a large number of qualifier spots in Europe and America are reserved for residents of those regions.

GSL is backKorea will be operated by GomTV under the GSL name, and will feature increased prize money for the most competitive region.

More WCS Global EventsWe will work more proactively with partners to set up a wider range and better geographic distribution of WCS Global Events that award ranking points. This should create additional competition opportunities for players

More emphasis on regional play with additional points and prize money for Premier League playersBy removing Season Finals events, we can better reward and recognize players for accomplishments in Premier League play.

Q. How does the Ladder Wildcard qualifier work?

Players must be ranked in master league and have at least 200 ladder wins on the home region ladder (American server for WCS America, Europe server for WCS Europe) in the season leading up to the ladder wildcard deadline. Players must use their registered ladder account that includes a name similar to their official player handle (no barcodes or smurfs). Specific details about all qualifier formats, deadlines, and signup pages will be released by NASL and ESL.

Q. You created a partial region lock. Why not a full region lock?

While we do want to make sure there are fair opportunities for players to compete in their home regions, we still want to ensure that the WCS system is working to bring top level competition to viewers and identify the world's best StarCraft II players through the global ranking system. WCS as of 2013 was not intended, nor designed to be an Olympic style competition that completely isolates regional players from each other before having them compete on the global stage. We explored the Olympic style system in 2012, and for the most part, the regional events received low global viewership or little support.

We think the partial region lock will be a good compromise that helps open up more chances for local players while not overly diluting the level of competition.

Q. In light of the partial region lock for America and Europe, what happens to the existing Korean and European players in Premier and Challenger?

The existing non-resident players in WCS America and WCS Europe Premier and Challenger leagues can stay in the region for 2014. Their status is guaranteed so long as they remain at the Premier/Challenger level. Once any players drop out, they must re-qualify through through the designated WCS 2014 Qualifier slots.

Q. Can players switch between WCS regions?

Players can only compete in one region at a time. If a player wishes to switch, they may declare a new region after being eliminated or at the end of a season. Any player that switches to a different region will be required to qualify through the designated WCS 2014 Qualifier Slots.

Q. What are the designated WCS Qualifier Slots?

In 2014, qualifier slots are reserved for citizens and legal residents of the home regions for both WCS America and WCS Europe. Since America has become the home WCS region for players from countries such as China, Australia, and Taiwan, we will reserve qualifier spots for players from those specific regions as well as the Americas. Ladder wildcard spots will have open enrollment with no citizenship or residency restriction, but still have a master's level requirement with a minimum number of ladder wins within that regional server. Master's level will also be required across all qualifiers.

WCS America

# of slots

Season 1 Exception

USA/Canada/Latin America

8

12

China

2

3

Oceania/Southeast Asia

2

3

Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macua

2

3

Ladder Wildcard

2

3

WCS Europe

# of slots

Season 1 Exception

Europe/Africa/Middle East

12

18

Ladder Wildcard

4

6

Q. What are the requirements for a player who wants to compete in a specific country or region's Qualifiers?

If a player would like to compete in a Qualifier for a specific country or region, that player must be either a citizen, be a permanent resident (Green Card) or have a valid, non-visitor visa for a country in that region which would allow them to compete in the Qualifier.

Q. What is the deadline for a player who wants to transfer to a different region for Season 1 2014?

If a player wants to transfer from an existing region to a new one, he/she must declare the region transfer to Blizzard by December 15, 2013 and will be required to qualify into the new region through the new qualifier system.

Q. Why does GSL (Korea) get more overall prize money and a much higher top end prize than America and Europe?

The overall prize pool in Korea is higher than America and Europe as an acknowledgment of the higher level of competition in the region. The top heavy distribution was something requested by GSL as well as other Korean influencers, as a regional preference.

The America and Europe prize pools feature a more even distribution from top to bottom in order to better recognize the achievement of all players who make it into Premier League.

Q. Will the Global Finals take place at BlizzCon again?

There will be a live Global Finals event for the WCS in 2014. We have not made any announcements about the next BlizzCon.

Q. In 2013 there was a lot of broadcasted WCS content within very compressed time periods. Some in the community felt the volume of WCS content squeezed out opportunities for third-party tournaments to take place. How will the 2014 system fix this?

We plan to focus primary attention on broadcasting Premier League content and keeping those broadcasts to two days a week during each season. That leaves three weekdays open plus the weekends during WCS Premier League play for other third-party competitions to take place. Also, with more time over the year to stretch out three seasons of WCS, there will be multi-week-long breaks between Premier League play where other competitions to take place. And without any Season Finals events, more weekends are open over the course of the year for additional partner tournaments.

Q. You said last year there would be four seasons of WCS in 2014. Why are there only 3?

Again, after evaluating what happened in 2013, we felt it was healthier for the ecosystem to not run such a compressed schedule, and allow more breathing room for other StarCraft II tournaments to take place.

Q. Will Round of 32 Premier League be conducted live or online in America and Europe?

This has not been decided yet. We’ll be working with our partners to determine what’s best and we will let you know if there are any changes.

Q. Why are you discontinuing Season Finals?

The reason we’re moving away from them is to put more emphasis on the achievements of players who do well in regional league play. We're distributing more prize money to the regional leagues in order to compensate for the absence of Season Finals events. Nonetheless, we do hope to work with partners to schedule and showcase a couple of major WCS Global events, which would potentially spotlight top players from each region and give them a place to compete. Stay tuned.

Q: Why does Premier League in Europe and America only force the bottom 16 Premier League players down to Challenger, while GSL in Korea forces the bottom 24 players to defend their Code S spot?

We feel that the simplification of the Qualifier and Challenger process in Europe and America should create plenty of opportunity for new players to get into Premier League. In 2014, a prospective new WCS Europe or WCS America player needs to win a qualifier spot, then win just a single, best-of-five match in Challenger to jump up into Premier League. Also, in the first season of 2014 in Europe and America, a full 24 qualifiers in each region will have the chance to get into Premier.

Q. Why is OGN no longer operating WCS? Does GomTV now have exclusive WCS rights? Was the decision mutual among all parties?

The 2014 plans were developed through extensive discussion and collaboration with all partners, and with feedback from community figures. While OGN did a great job with producing Starleague, the Season 1 Finals, and the Korean language version of the WCS Global Finals stream at BlizzCon, we decided that the switch off between GomTV and OGN from season to season in Korea was confusing and redundant in many cases. OGN remains a great partner for Blizzard and will move forward with producing broadcast content related to Hearthstone. They also retain the right to run both StarCraft and StarCraft II content. While nothing is currently planned, it is possible they could run a WCS Global Event if it meets the criteria laid out and they obtain a license for such an event.

As for GomTV, their involvement with WCS is not an "exclusive" deal, but we believe the consistent broadcast for all three seasons in Korea will be beneficial for fans.

Q. Will KeSPA players continue to participate in WCS 2014?

WCS is open for all players who wish to compete. We believe every player should have the right to decide how and where they participate in StarCraft II eSports. We look forward to seeing continued participation from KeSPA players in WCS 2014.

PRESS MATERIALS COURTESY OF BLIZZARD

AdministratorHey HP can you redo everything youve ever done because i have a small complaint?

Really like the changes overall. I tihnk they're going in the right direction. While I'm really happy to have the name of GSL back, I am a little worried about newcomers understanding that GSL is synonmyous with the Europe and America counterparts. Other than that, everything looks solid, and I feel there's a lot of promise for 2014 =D